Nothing Down Below But Me
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: Tim agrees to go skydiving with Delilah after the events in "Bulletproof" in season 11. He just neglected to tell her that he's scared of heights. Oneshot written as a thank you for the NFA SeSa fic exchange.


**A/N: **This is a oneshot written as a thank you to the moderator who coordinated the NFA Secret Santa Fic Exchange this year. It's a Tim/Delilah tag to Bulletproof in season 11. If you don't like Delilah being with Tim, you won't like this story. This is one of the few canon pairings I actually enjoy. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own NCIS or its characters. I also don't own Josh Groban's song (which is beautiful, by the way; you should all go and listen to it). I'm not making any money off this story.

* * *

**Nothing Down Below but Me  
**by Enthusiastic Fish

_Broken, once connected,  
__We were so strong and so blessed in a simple way.  
__So don't let me go it alone.  
__Turn your head up to the sky.  
__Nothing down below but me.  
__Face the truth to realize  
__All that we could be.  
__Torn apart by rage and fear.  
__Hold onto what brought you here.  
__Don't let it go.  
__Never let go.  
_"_Never Let Go" by Josh Groban_

_What was I thinking?_ Tim asked himself. This was possibly the worst idea he'd ever had. It wasn't like it had been required. It would have been fine if he had just waited.

_What in the world was I thinking?_

Then, he looked over and saw Delilah's exhilarated expression and he knew what he'd been thinking.

_It's worth it for her._

So much of the last few months had been one misstep after another as he tried to figure out how their relationship was going to work with Delilah being paralyzed. There was always a remote possibility that some medical breakthrough could give her back the ability to walk, but neither of them were going to hang their hats on that. It was either learn to work with the new challenges or fall apart. There had been a lot of shaky moments where Tim had been sure that they were done, that he just couldn't do it. Then, they'd get through that challenge and things would be okay again. The fact that neither one of them had suggested they break up had probably been the biggest thing. They didn't _want_ to.

He forced a smile onto his own face, hoping that she wouldn't remember just how much he hated heights. He didn't want to ruin this for her.

Maybe the smile just wasn't genuine enough (since it wasn't genuine at all), but her face became solemn.

Shouting above the roar of the engines, she leaned over as close to him as she could get.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Tim shouted back.

"You're lying! What's wrong?"

"I'm not...really... happy with high places!" Tim shouted, trying to pass it off as a minor inconvenience rather than something that could leave him with knees like water.

"You're scared of heights? Why didn't you say something?"

It was impossible to sound loving when he had to shout at the top of his lungs. So he settled for being honest.

"Because you're worth it!"

She looked at him for a long moment. Then, she smiled and kissed him on the cheek. She gestured to their trainer. He worked for Linn and he'd been great. Tim had been fine...on the ground. He came over and Delilah lowered her voice just enough that Tim couldn't hear her. He nodded and then looked at them both.

"All right! I'm going to jump first and then Delilah will go! Tim, you'll bring up the rear, okay?"

"Sure!" Tim said, trying to sound nonchalant.

He smiled.

"We're over the jump zone, now! I'm just going to check with the pilot one last time! Then, we'll get started!"

Delilah looked at Tim, and he could tell she was probably very much aware of how little he was looking forward to this. His eyes kept moving to the open hatch. They were so high up. How in the world was he going to do this? Maybe that's what was going on. Delilah was giving him an out. Leaving him to go last meant that he could just not jump and see them safely on the ground. As ashamed as he felt by that, he was tempted.

Delilah hugged Tim tightly and then, she put her mouth right by his ear so she didn't have to shout.

"Don't worry about anything, Tim. I'll be waiting for you on the ground. Just think about that. Just me, not anything else. Don't look down. Look up if you need to, look out, but I'll be waiting. So you don't need to look down. You already know what will be there."

Then, she moved over into position by the door with the trainer's help. Then, he went to make one last check. It had been time-consuming and costly to do this, but it was definitely worth it. Delilah was so excited. A way of asserting her independence, even when some of it had been taken away.

Their trainer came back in, gave Tim a thumbs up, reviewed what Delilah was supposed to do one last time and then jumped.

Delilah waited the required time and then looked at him one more time.

_I love you, _she mouthed to him.

Then, she was gone.

Tim was all that was left. Well, there was the pilot and copilot, of course.

The copilot came back.

"You going to jump or are we headed back?" he asked.

Tim looked at him for a long moment and then back to the open hatch. He swallowed hard. This was possibly the worst thing he'd ever been asked to do in his entire life.

_But I can't back out, now. I have to do this._

He got up and walked to the hatch.

Boy, the ground was _really_ far down. Really, _really_ far down. He could feel his hands start to sweat.

"Are you jumping?" the copilot asked again.

"Yes!" Tim shouted and then, before he could talk himself out of it, he jumped.

For a few seconds, he was so terrified that he couldn't even think. The only thing going through his gibbering mind was _the ground is going to kill me!_

Then, the training he'd gone through with Delilah took over and he spread his body out, slowing himself down slightly. He managed to think through his terror and what he thought of was how much fun Delilah was probably having right now. In this situation they were completely equal. In fact, Tim would venture to say that she was way ahead of him since she wasn't scared of heights. He could see her parachute far below him. Speaking of, Tim yanked on the cord and prayed that it would work.

For just a moment, he was panicked. The parachute wasn't working! Then, he was yanked upward.

He looked down and saw the ground approaching at a much slower rate. It gave him some time to _not_ think about how high up he was still.

_Don't look down. You know what's down there. Delilah._

He smiled, closed his eyes and thought of Delilah. She would be waiting for him on the ground. He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. It seemed just as far away as it had before. It was like there was no end to it. It just kept going. He looked out and there was no denying that there was a great view, completely unimpeded.

_Don't look down. Don't look down._

It seemed like forever that he was just looking around. Then, finally, Tim forced himself to look down toward the ground. He needed to know how long he had before he touched down. He could see where Delilah had already landed. Her green parachute was in view on the ground. Speaking of the ground, it was getting awfully close.

Tim wanted to close his eyes again, but he kept them open until his feet touched the ground. He had been taught how to land and stay on his feet, but he didn't. He hit and rolled, the parachute billowing around him. He came to a rest after a few seconds. As he tried to find his way out of the fabric, he heard applause.

"You made it, Tim!"

"I think I did," Tim said. "I can't see anything but my parachute!"

"What color is it?"

"Ha ha."

Finally, he saw something other than orange and white fabric. He managed to crawl out of the parachute and detach himself from it. Then, he looked around and saw Delilah, looked just as excited as she'd been on the plane. She was back in her chair and grinning widely.

Tim wasn't big on public displays of affection. He felt that things like that should be kept private, but as soon as he saw her, looking so happy, he set that aside. He walked over to her, leaned down and kissed her soundly.

"You look like you enjoyed yourself," he said.

"That was the most amazing experience of my life," Delilah said. "Tim, I'm so glad you introduced me to this. I don't know when I've felt so free. Thank you."

"I said it before. You're worth it."

Delilah reached up and cupped her hand over Tim's cheek.

"You didn't have to do this for me. If you had said you were scared of heights, I would have done it myself."

"I know." Tim looked at her for a long moment, not saying anything more.

Delilah's smile softened.

"Thank you," she said again.

"I'd say anytime, but I'm afraid you'll take me up on it."

Delilah laughed as Tim wheeled her to more level ground that would allow her to move herself. They both waved to the trainer who was packing up the parachutes to take back to the hangar.

"So...how was it for you?" Delilah asked.

"When I took your advice, it wasn't bad."

"My advice?"

They got to the truck and Tim leaned against it.

"When I thought of you waiting for me on the ground, I didn't worry so much about the height."

Delilah took Tim's hand. It was much rougher, more calloused than it had been before, like Delilah herself was to some degree, but it was still the same hand.

"I know this has been hard for us. We've had a real learning curve to deal with since...all this," she said. "I'm glad that you didn't give up."

"I couldn't," Tim said honestly.

"Why not?"

"Because I can't see that I could do any better." Then, he felt like he had to say something more, but he wasn't sure what it was. "You've stuck with me longer than anyone else has."

Delilah squeezed his hand.

"I don't think I could do any better, either."

Tim leaned down for another kiss.

"You two ready to head back? Oops...sorry."

Tim sat up and looked at their trainer.

"Yeah, we're ready," he said.

"Great. Just let me toss these things in the truck and we'll get going. Linn's going to want to know how it went. He always likes to hear from new clients."

Delilah hugged Tim around the waist briefly.

"It went great."

Tim blushed and the trainer laughed. Just before he helped Delilah into the truck, she grabbed his hand.

"Tim?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll always be waiting...as long as you're coming."

Tim squeezed her hand and kissed her quickly.

"Then, I'll always come."

They both got into the truck and then, headed back to the hangar.

FINIS!


End file.
